George Washington (Lansdowne Portrait) (1796) by Gilbert StuartSmithsonian's National Portrait Gallery
President 1
The very first US President, this man served in the top job from 1789 to 1797, after leading the Patriot forces to victory in the American Revolutionary War.
He was a superb military leader and played a very important role in the creation and ratification of the Constitution of the United States.
Often coming top in polls of the nation's greatest ever President, he was also immortalized in stone on Mount Rushmore. But can you name him?
George Washington
Theodore Roosevelt (1915) by Pirie MacDonaldSmithsonian's National Portrait Gallery
President 2
The 26th US President, he was in the Oval Office from 1901 to 1909, having assumed the job after the assassination of William McKinley.
Before becoming President, he had led a military unit called the Rough Riders, which had successfully fought the Spanish in Cuba. Returning to the US a war hero, he became President at the age of just 42 - still the youngest person ever to hold the office.
While on a hunting trip in 1902, this President declared the behavior of the other hunters 'unsportsmanlike' and refused to kill a bear they had captured. A new form of stuffed bear toy was named in his honour. But who is he?
Theodore Roosevelt
Abraham Lincoln (1887) by George Peter Alexander HealySmithsonian's National Portrait Gallery
President 3
A former lawyer, and 16th President of the USA, he was leader from 1861 until 1865, during the Civil War.
Born into poverty, he was a self educated man, working his way up the political ladder before eventually taking the reins of the Republican Party and Presidency. He is chiefly remembered for abolishing slavery and modernizing the US economy.
Despite frequently being cited as the greatest ever occupant of the Presidency, he was not popular with everyone at the time and was assassinated while attending the theater in 1865 by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathiser. Can you name him?
Abraham Lincoln
President Nixon in the Oval Office (1972-06-23)Richard Nixon Foundation
President 4
The 37th President, he served from 1969 to 1974 and is perhaps one of the most controversial and divisive people ever to hold the office.
Having been Vice President for 8 years, from 1952, he tried and failed to win the Presidency in 1960, before eventually being successfully elected in 1969. This was one of the most turbulent periods in American history and his time in office was to be just as polarising.
His escalation of the War in Vietnam proved to be very unpopular but it was the Watergate Scandal, followed by his impending impeachment in 1974 that led to his resignation. He remains the only standing US President to have resigned his post. Who is he?
Richard Nixon
Orion at the White House (2018-07-22) by NASA/Joel KowskyNASA
Want to learn more?
You can discover more about the history of the Presidency and American democracy here.
